Science Lab Virtual Field Trips

With virtual schooling, field trips have to take on a new form. Teachers have found alternatives for students to have fun while learning via Zoom. Ms. Shazia Hangora, the science lab teacher, organized a virtual field trip for 2nd grade in January. The Pink Palace hosted a virtual field trip and all students had to do was participate in class. The field trip had different activities in chemistry and science. The sessions were 45 minutes long and included worksheets and demos such as density and states of matter, magnets, and elephant toothpaste. Since the trip was recorded, Ms. Shazia paused the recording in the middle and discussed what was going on to make it more interactive. This opportunity gave them an experience similar to that of a physical field trip. This was a new experience for the students because it was different from those field trips that they had been on before. The students learned from and enjoyed this new world of learning opportunities.

In the first few weeks of March, Ms. Shazia has done NASA Mars Mission 2020 with the 3rd and 4th graders. NASA offered a workshop for students so Ms. Shazia registered them for the workshop about Mars Mission 2020. Their spacecraft landed recently on Mars so this was the best time to talk to the students about recent scientific events. The workshop helps students to brainstorm and to think critically about many questions such as what challenges scientists faced to build a spacecraft and send it to Mars, how many days it took them to send it to Mars, and how scientists can bring the spacecraft back to Earth. Additionally, in class, Ms. Shazia assigned the students a challenge to build their own spacecraft which should land properly and release the shuttle onto the target. Students are excitidely working on their engineering projects.

We are extremely proud of our teachers that are able to make virtual schooling fun and interactive especially for elementary students.